PROM NIGHT (2008)

PROM NIGHT (2008)

Tagline: A Night To Die For.

(Horror, Drama, And A Date For The Prom… Classic Spanky) [PG-13]

Note: This movie has no connection to the original PROM NIGHT (1980). It’s really not even considered an attempt at a remake. The fact that both films involve a prom and a killer is the only similarity. 

This is a case I had three years ago. High school teacher, he got crazy obsessed with a female student. They fired him, that didn't stop him. And then when the family got a restraining order against him, he went psycho.

In this one, a crazed high school teacher named Richard Fenton develops a deadly obsession with his student Donna Keppel. Three years earlier he was put in prison but escaped and is now hunting her down as well as anyone that gets in her way leaving a trail of death and blood. On top of all that, it’s PROM NIGHT. 

First off, this is a good outing for Brittany Snow who plays Donna. She is most famous for her role as Chloe in PITCH PERFECT. Dana Davis does a solid job as Lisa Hines. She is best known for COACH CARTER but continues to get plenty of roles starring in the TV series “Craig Of The Creek” as of late. Idris Elba (BEAST) is awesome as always as Detective Winn. Jessica Stroup (VAMPIRE BATS) plays Donna’s friend Claire and does a solid job with the minimal screen time she gets. Scott Porter (SPEED RACER) is also decent in this as Bobby. Rounding out the main cast we have Johnathon Schaech who is sufficiently creepy in this as Richard Fenton. He is probably most famous for playing Jonah Hex in CW’s DC TV shows. 

This is another one of those horror flicks in the 2000s where the cast is loaded with people who look like models. That means everyone, even the dudes. I think to keep the PG-13 rating the violence is pretty toned down, but the scale is pretty high for a flick like this. Not only are detectives also chasing down the killer, but cops are around, we have huge crowds all over the place, it happens in a hotel so it’s not like no one knows this killer is on the loose. Everyone seems to know it but Donna. 

The moral here is that if you hire teachers you need to do a serious background check on them. If they flirt with your kids or talk about sex in any way that isn’t part of a class your parents know about and have vetted. Sorry, that’s a freakin red flag. You are probably dealing with a sicko pervert. Yep. I said that. 

When it comes to the pacing this thing moves right along. The actual prom happens about 10 minutes into the movie, so there isn’t a lot of wasted time or exposition that comes across as just being there to increase the run time. I thought the score was weak and comes across more like something you would get in an action movie, not a horror flick, but the soundtrack is freakin fantastic. The opening reminds me a lot of I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. In spite of a great cast, there unfortunately isn’t a lot of intrigue or “horror” here. It’s all kind of cookie-cutter feeling borrowed from other films. I really don’t mind that in slasher horror, but typically those are B-movies that are straight-up telling you that they are cheese from the start. 

This film is taking itself seriously and that is probably the problem. Unlike other critics, I definitely didn’t hate the cast or the performances. They would have been better off giving us an opening that showed the background between these characters that we are supposed to care about, amped up the horror aesthetic thrown in a stormy night, and on and on. When the scariest parts of the film are all dream sequences, that is when you know your writers blew it…either that or Freddy needs to show up. 

PROM NIGHT gets a 3 out of 7. I don’t agree with the haters giving it 1’s and 2’s on a 10 scale. It’s definitely watchable, but it’s just okay.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF SCREEN GEMS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.